Nurses should have their job title protected in law, ministers told

Nurses should be given “the respect they deserve” and have their title protected in law, a former minister has said.

A campaign to have the title “nurse” protected so only qualified nurses can use it was started earlier this year. It began after the anti-vaxxer nurse Kate Shemirani was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Ms Shemirani has spread disinformation over the Covid-19 vaccines whilst describing herself as a nurse – which she can do without threat of any action.

The title “registered nurse” is protected but not “nurse” on its own.

A petition calling for a change in the law has attracted almost 30,000 signatures.

Former Labour minister Dawn Butler is backing the calls to give the title "nurse" special status in a bid to improve patient safety.

Brent Central MP Ms Butler said: "Our amazing registered nurses have been on the frontline during the pandemic, as they always are.

"They protect us every day, so we must protect and value them and their profession too.

"This change will also safeguard patient safety by preventing harmful misinformation, for example from people who may have been struck off or who are not qualified nurses."

She added: "This pandemic has shown us that it is vital that we give nurses the respect they deserve."

Professor Alison Leary, chair of healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University, has said that this risks "giving credibility" to the anti-vaccination movement.

But she also said protecting the title was important to create "absolute clarity" about the medical professionals who are treating patients, and to make sure patients were getting good care.

She said: "In this country we have got, depending on who you speak to - in England - between 34,000 and 50,000 registered nurse vacancies, and employers inside and outside the NHS are actually quite desperate to fill them.

"A lot of people think it is just that there is no money, but these jobs are established jobs and they don’t have the people to fill them."

She added the vacancies are often filled by physiotherapists, and occupational therapists, medical workers who have "value in their own right" but not the right skills to be a "vigilant professional" as nurses are.

Professor Leary described nurses as the "air traffic controllers of healthcare" because they "pick out the signs that someone is getting sicker and they manage care".

The professor warned: "What we have known for many years, every single inquiry from Ely Hospital in the 1960s to Cawston Park a couple of weeks ago, shows that if you don’t have enough registered nurses or you don’t have people with the right qualifications and experience then catastrophic things happen to patients."

Ms Butler asked the government, via a written parliamentary question, if it is planning to protect the title.

Health minister Edward Argar replied: "The Department of Health and Social Care has begun discussions with the professional regulators, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the office of the Chief Nursing Officer for England, and the Royal College of Nursing to explore the issue of protected titles as part of the ongoing Government review of professional regulation.

"We will consider the protection of title offences relating to registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates when bringing forward reform of the NMC’s legal framework."

Additional reporting by agencies